US killing of al-Shabaab leader in '08 may shine light on NSA surveillance program

In
May 2008, U.S. officials touted a major counterterrorism success in
Africa: A U.S. missile strike had killed Aden Hashen Ayrow, a top leader
of the Somali-based terror group al-Shabaab.

Five years later, that strike is under fresh scrutiny over an issue
that got little attention at the time: how the U.S. government found
Ayrow in the first place.

A newly disclosed FBI email suggests
the National Security Agency may have played a role in Ayrow's killing.
That could shed new light on how agency surveillance programs --
including collection of data inside the United States -- is used to
support lethal U.S. counterterrorism strikes overseas, say civil
liberties groups and defense lawyers.

The email surfaced in court papers recently filed by lawyers for
Basaaly Moalin, a San Diego cab driver convicted in February of
providing "material support" to al-Shabaab. U.S. officials have said
Moalin was identified as a suspect through the NSA's bulk collection of
Americans' phone records -- a program only recently revealed in
documents leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Moalin is now
appealing his conviction on the grounds that he was unconstitutionally
targeted by the NSA program.

In the email, an unidentified FBI agent discusses the role of
"another agency" -- an apparent reference to the NSA -- in intercepting a
phone call that Moalin had just received from Ayrow in Somalia.

"We
just heard from another agency that Ayrow tried to make a call to
Basaaly today, but the call didn't go through," the FBI agent wrote to a
colleague on Jan. 27, 2008. "If you see anything today, can you give
us a shout? We're extremely interested in getting real time info
(location/new #s) on Ayrow."

The search for Ayrow was eventually successful.

Three months
after that email was sent, U.S. officials confirmed his death from a
missile strike and described him as a brutal terrorist who had met with
Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. One State Department official called
him "Somalia's Zarqawi"-- a reference to Abu Musab Zarqawi, the al Qaeda
leader killed in Iraq in 2006 -- and said the U.S. missile strike had
"unsettled the Shabaab, giving some leaders immediate cause to wonder
who would be next," according to a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Kenya
revealed by WikiLeaks.

"It's clear from the email that they were
trying to find Ayrow for the purposed of targeted assassination," said
Joshua Dratel, a lawyer for Moalin.

The NSA bulk
collection program has generated intense controversy since it was
revealed in June, with critics contending that it amounts to dragnet
surveillance of the phone calls of every American, whether or not there
is any evidence of ties to terrorism.

The NSA has
emphasized that the program involves no actual eavesdropping on phone
calls and said that it has played an important role in thwarting terror
attacks. But Deputy NSA Director John Ingliss recently acknowledged that
the only case in which the bulk collection program was essential to
identifying a terrorist was that of Moalin.

The NSA did not respond to a request for comment on what role, if any, the program played in pinpointing Ayrow's whereabouts.

An FBI spokesman declined comment on the email, saying the Moalin case was a "pending matter."

But
a former U.S. counterterrorism official directly involved in the
planning of lethal operations abroad said the NSA's role was "crucial"
in identifying and locating targets.

"Without them, JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) and the CIA
would be out of business, said the former official, speaking on
condition of anonymity. "They would scoop up all these phone numbers and
then zero in on them, get you a ‘pattern of life' (of the targets)
using all this high-speed stuff, and help you triangulate."

The
legal challenge comes at a time that the agency's role in helping to
identify targets for CIA and Defense Department drone and missile
strikes is getting new attention.

New documents leaked by Snowden, and first reported this week by the Washington Post,
show the NSA has set up a special unit, the CounterTerrorism Mission
Aligned Cell or CT Mac, to use its phone and email interceptions to
pinpoint the coordinates for CIA and U.S. military drone strikes.

The
Post story cited as one example a CIA drone strike that killed Al Qaeda
terrorist Hassan Ghul in Pakistan in 2012. That strike was cited in the
NSA documents as a "success" for the CT Mac, according to the Post's
account.

Asked more generally about the NSA's role in locating
targets for drone strikes, an NSA spokeswoman said: "The National
Security Agency is a foreign intelligence agency. We're focused on
discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence
targets, such as terrorists, human traffickers and drug smugglers. Our
activities are directed against valid foreign intelligence targets in
response to requirements from U.S. leaders in order to protect the
nation and its interests from threats such as terrorism and the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

(Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP). FBI agents meet at the scene of an explosion in Austin, Texas, Sunday, March 18, 2018. At least a few people were injured in another explosion in Texas' capital late Sunday, after three package bombs deto...

Police have warned residents near the site of the latest explosion in Austin to remain indoors and to call 911 if they need to leave home before 10 a.m.More

Police have warned residents near the site of the latest explosion in Austin to remain indoors and to call 911 if they need to leave home before 10 a.m.More